my discussions on free-will<\/a> that I’ve sighted plenty of passages to support my conclusions.<\/p>\nGod’s silence on a topic only tells us that we do not know what God wants. You cannot conclude permission from silence nor can you fully conclude prohibition. But in many subjects, people claim silence when God has not been silent.<\/p>\n
For example, God has clearly stated that marriage is been a man and a woman (Matthew 19:4-6). Leaders of congregations, who set the example for the rest of the congregation, must be husbands of one wife (I Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6). Thus, polygamy is ruled out by what God has said.<\/p>\n
Transgenderism is ruled out because God said He made mankind as male and female (Genesis 1:27). Men and women are not to dress as the other gender (Deuteronomy 22:5). Transgenderism is a form of lying about who you are, which is forbidden by God (Colossians 3:9-11). To say that God hasn’t talked about this issue is to ignore what God has said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Good day, Brother Jeff, I have gotten very satisfactory answers from you since I started using your site. You answer like a real teacher. I’m just shuffling off progressivism from my life and neither do I want to be an extremist to the left or right in any matter. I just want the truth.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[866,426,912],"class_list":["post-24094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-foreknowledge","tag-free-will","tag-silence"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47301,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-struggling-with-the-ideas-of-foreknowledge-and-free-will\/","url_meta":{"origin":24094,"position":0},"title":"I’m struggling with the ideas of foreknowledge and free will","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thank you for all your articles and answers. They are beneficial. I have recently been struggling very much with the idea of foreknowledge and free will. I have always believed that we have free will and that God can simply use whatever our decisions are to accomplish his will.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52372,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-we-gods-puppets\/","url_meta":{"origin":24094,"position":1},"title":"Are we God’s puppets?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: About predestination and foreknowledge: God gave us a mind of our own, but He already knows what we will choose. Therefore, He can determine His plans without taking away our own responsibility. As a child, I learned that God predestined us to believe, so we don't choose ourselves and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14518,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-gods-foreknowledge-only-apply-to-groups\/","url_meta":{"origin":24094,"position":2},"title":"Does God’s foreknowledge only apply to groups?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just read your article on the subject of predestination and foreknowledge. I very well understood the difficulties and struggle of trying to explain subjects like these and wish to appreciate your efforts I just want you to look at Acts 13:48 and Ephesians 2:10. I will like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":67887,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-hold-a-celebration-in-advance-of-an-event\/","url_meta":{"origin":24094,"position":3},"title":"Is it wrong to hold a celebration in advance of an event?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, brother Jeff. I encountered a weird question about holding a celebration in advance (e.g., a pre-birthday, pre-anniversary, or pre-going away party). A sister said we shouldn't do this because we're attempting to be a step ahead of God when we do not know what will happen tomorrow\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53172,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-there-is-free-will-how-can-god-prophesy-specific-details\/","url_meta":{"origin":24094,"position":4},"title":"If there is free will, how can God prophesy specific details?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been reading a lot about open theism recently, and I feel like it accords more with the biblical portrait of God and free will than any of the other proposed points of view (Calvinism, Arminianism, etc.). I have read in one of your posts that you also\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-god-already-know-everything-that-will-ever-happen\/","url_meta":{"origin":24094,"position":5},"title":"Does God Already Know Everything that Will Ever Happen?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Green A Reformed (Calvinist) scholar wrote: \u201cThe Scriptures clearly teach that long before we pray, God already knows everything and that He has already determined what He is going to do.\u201d It\u2019s true that God is omniscient and absolutely sovereign over all things. To think that we can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}